The Big Smoke

Originally Aired: February 22, 1953

Dragnet #192, "The Big Smoke," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith respond to a brutal home invasion at 8469 North Brighton Avenue. A 72-year-old man has been murdered, and his invalid wife, Patricia Stone, has been severely beaten. Mrs. Stone, confined to a wheelchair following an earlier auto accident, crawled to her neighbor Mrs. Hurley's back door after the attack. The neighbor heard scratching and moaning at her door around seven in the morning and discovered the badly injured woman on her porch.

Friday and Smith arrive to find Mrs. Stone in shock, being treated by ambulance attendants. Despite her traumatic condition, she tries to recount the terrifying events of the previous night. Two men broke into the Stone home, and when her husband Henry argued with them, they killed him. The assailants then discovered Patricia and beat her as well, nearly killing her. Working with virtually no leads and a victim too traumatized to provide useful descriptions of her attackers, Friday and Smith face the challenging task of finding the men responsible for this senseless crime.